120 years ago

March 25, 1905

Eagle residents voted in favor of incorporating the town, with 62 for incorporation and 20 against.

“It was something unexpected when the election on incorporation carried with such a large majority,” the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported. “Now that the election is over there should be no time wasted on the public’s part to get at the work of cleaning up the town, etc. Whether or not the question was settled to everybody’s particular idea of right or wrote all should pull together according to the policy of the majority.”

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100 years ago

March 30, 1925

The Moffat Tunnel Improvement District announced it had received financing of $2,500,000 to finish the Moffat Tunnel in Gore Canyon.

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The tunnel had been envisioned since the early 1900s as a shortcut to be used along with the Dotsero Cutoff to shorten the distance between Denver and the Pacific coast by 176 miles.

90 years ago

March 29, 1935

Two Civilian Conservation Corps camps were approved for Eagle County by the regional forest office, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.

“Location of the camps if established will be near the forks of Brush Creek and one on Gore Creek,” the Enterprise reported.

Projects expected to take place at Brush Creek camp included the building of a new road on East Brush creek to Yoeman Park; forest boundary and drift fences; poison weed eradication on forest ranges; gopher control; establishing camp grounds within the forest; development of Fulford Cave; range reseeding; and stream development including fish retaining ponds.

“For the Gore Creek camp, the big project included in the setup is the construction of a road up Red Sandstone Creek, making accessible a large acreage of fine timber,” the Enterprise reported.

60 years ago

March 25, 1965

Wolcott rancher Leonard Horn testified before Congress in Washington, D.C., regarding the Bureau of Land Management’s classification of certain federally administered lands for priority use.

Horn was the chairman of the public lands committee of the American National Cattlemen’s Association and appeared at a hearing at the Department of the Interior, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.

Horn’s statement said his prime objective of any land classification or public land law should be to keep the people on the land on which they have been living and to protect it for future generations, the Enterprise reported.

“In many instances this could have federal lands moving, as intended in previous land management laws into private ownership, but in other instances, the human values should be given due consideration and long-term tenure on the federal land provided,” Horn said.

50 years ago

March 28, 1975

Sen. Floyd K. Haskell was set to appear at hearings in Glenwood Springs in April regarding his legislation to create an Eagles Nest Wilderness area near Vail and a Flat Tops Wilderness north of Glenwood Springs, the Vail Trail reported.

The hearings were set to take place before the Senate Interior Subcommittee on Environment and Land Resources, which was chaired by Haskell.

Haskell’s bills to create a 237,500-acre Flat Tops Wilderness and a 128,500-acre Eagles Nest Wilderness would create wilderness areas that were considerably larger than those proposed by the Forest Service and endorsed by the Ford Administration, the Trail reported, quoting Haskell.

“My bills would encompass a variety of terrain that would be accessible to more people,” Haskell said. “Only the most physically fit and eager hikers would be able to enjoy the Administration’s proposed areas.”

40 years ago

March 25, 1985

A single-engine airplane was found crashed in the trees at Beaver Creek, the Vail Trail reported.

Air safety investigators had not determined a cause of the crash, which occurred a few days earlier and killed John M. Wyland, 38, of Gypsum, and Sally L. Hawkins, 35, of Eagle.

“The last known radio contact from the plane came at 8:19 p.m. Thursday, when Wyland radioed the Eagle County Airport for weather conditions; he reported his position as being over Minturn at the time,” the Trail reported. “Nothing more was known about the plane’s whereabouts until Monday when a worker at Beaver Creek ski area discovered the smashed plane in the trees between two ski runs. The plane came to rest near the bottom of the hill; it was found about 50 yards above the top of Chair 1, between the Assay and Latigo ski runs.”